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Toliva Shoals 2018: You Gotta Want It

Published on 02-18-2018 11:24 AM

The generally benign conditions one expects for the the Toliva Shoals race, the 3rd and longest event
in the 4 race of the Southern Sound Series, was anything BUT benign this year. As suggested by
by Bruce Hedrick in his analysis:

Oh boy, you better sit down and get out the AED because you almost never see these three words in the same sentence: Toliva Shoal and Breezy! The models all seem to agree, we are gonna have some wind this weekend with the slight possibility of snow late Saturday and early Sunday, so if you’re going on the race you had better prepare accordingly. This includes a potential wind chill of 15-20°F which is no joke.

As you can see from the surface charts we have a relatively weak low-pressure system with an attached frontal system working over us today to be followed by a much stronger system tomorrow. The front associated with tomorrow’s system will pass through near dawn leaving us with a strong post-frontal, onshore flow. This will mean strong SW breeze over the south and central Sound with steady winds of 20-30 knots with gusts to 45 knots and this will hold for most of Saturday, even over the Toliva Shoal Race Course.

The other good news is that we’ll have favorable tides with the ebb starting just before the race starts. In this run, reach, run scenario you will probably make it to the Toliva mark fairly early which means you’ll need to be thinking ahead and be constantly planning for that next leg, especially the leg from Johnson Pt to Buoy #3 at the Flats. This will be a shifty reach where you’ll really want to have the barber-hauler rigged on the port side before you leave the dock because once you’re racing you’ll be too busy to rig it. There will also be plenty of rain which will knock visibility down so be sure to have the compass courses posted for each leg.

Toliva Shoal. Start between the Race Committee Boat and the east marker of the Olympia Shoal in a northerly direction. Proceed leaving Dofflemyer Point and Johnson Point to starboard; then the government mark #3 off Nisqually Delta, the Toliva Shoal buoy, Eagle Island, the government mark #1 at the west end of Balch Passage, Johnson Point, and Dofflemyer Point to port. Finish in a southerly direction between the race committee boat and the east marker of the Olympia Shoal. Approximate distance 38.4 nm

Sean Trew braved the fierce conditions that witnessed gusts to 50 and much carnage in the reduced fleet.
Only 18 boats finished the marathon course. 23 boats took a DNF and an additional 10 boats decided that
staying warm by the clubhouse fire was more appealing.

Of the finishers, Bill Fox's J-160 finished the course in record time of 04:42:27 and corrected out with 5 minutes to spare over
Ronald Holbrooks J-133 Constellation for PHRF 2 honors. Corrected overall honors went to Robert King's Olson 40 String Theory,
with 04:40:30 (05:36:59 actual) and PHRF 3 Honors.